Page 57 of Caveman Alien's Bride

They are — one is standing a few paces away, staring into the jungle and slowly rotating on his heel. The other is standing further away, almost invisible against a tree.

Bryar is busy with her work, and so are the men around her. I watch how she talks with them and explains things in her bright voice. The men follow her instructions and make innocent jokes with her, and she jokes back. She praises their work and suggests improvements.

When one man seems to suggest an improvement of his own, she happily agrees and says something I can’t hear, but which gets the man blushing with happiness. The way she’s able to gently lead them is either alien magic or just talent.

I get out of hiding and noisily make my way over to her. “Here you are. Outside the wall.”

“It’s the only place this can work,” Bryar tells me. “There is the very clean stream for the Lifegiver water, and there is wall. Not is far, as you see. But would be impossible to move the wall outside creek because of the way it…” She moves her finger in a snaking movement.

“The way it keeps changing its course,” I suggest.

“Yes. But hard part is not here. Hard part is on inside of wall. That is tomorrow, maybe finished then. The men are very great at work with wood! See this?” She points to a thick pipe made from a hollowed-out log. “This go through wall.”

“But the water won’t flow that way,” I point out a fatal flaw in her plans. “It’s uphill.”

“That is why we need iron parts that are be forged right now,” Bryar says cheerfully. “You hear bangs?”

Indeed someone is doing smithing in the village, which happens every day. “I do.”

“You will see.”

I look around. There are no obvious threats, but irox could appear at any time.

“How long do you need to be outside the wall?”

“Just until we finish this pipe. Husband, you can go back in and do chief things if you want. Men watch me. Or I make you do work here, I command and be very strict like angry little chief. You want?”

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- Bryar -

Korr’ax laughs. “It would be interesting to help build this, but I don’t want to see you angry. I’ll go do my chief things. And you will come back inside for the common meal before sunset. I will not have you outside in twilight or darkness. Hear that, Ypur’az?!”

“Yes, Chief,” one of my bodyguards says. “We shall bring Bryar in before the sun touches the horizon.”

“And be on guard for irox!” Korr’ax commands. “I shall send two more men to assist.”

I chuckle and grab his upper arm. “Let the men do their work, Chief. They keeping me very safe. And I be inside before sunset.”

He bends down and kisses me. “Good.”

I can’t take my eyes off him as he saunters away, legs and back flexing hard with each step. The heat that fills my lower section when he’s close is definitely there. But today, that will wait until bedtime.

The men are good workers, and they understand what I want to make. Except for the most important part, which only exists in my mind. And which may never work, for all I know. I’ve never built anything like it, or even seen it working. But I know people on Earth built those things millennia ago, so I hope I can make it work with some experimenting.

We’re done before sunset. The wooden pipe is about the thickness of my thigh. It’s covered with tightly-wound reams of dinosaur skin to keep it as water tight as possible. It dips into the little creek and goes from there through the wall in a loose square of beveled wood that can’t be seen from the outside, but which can easily be pulled open from the inside. While things in the village seem fine right now, it may be useful to have an escape hatch that only I can fit through.

“We are finish,” I announce to the workers. “Tomorrow all work is on inside of wall.”

“It shall be fun to see it work,” one man says as we walk back inside. “I have never heard of any village having anything like this.”

There’s smoke from inside the village, and the smell of newly-cooked food tickles my nose. “I hope will work, warrior. If no work, we try again. Try and try until work.”

The gate opens for us, and the two gatekeepers give me shy smiles.

In the distance the top of the totem pole shines red in the light from the setting sun, smoke rises from three big cooking fires, and Korr’ax is standing there, hands on hips, looking at me as I approach.

I walk right into his arms and squeeze him. “We finish outside gate now.”

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